Stop blaming the Boomers.

I’m not a big fan of blame. If you blame someone or something – a neighbor, a relative, a government – then you are essentially abdicating your own personal power in that situation. You are stating that no matter what you might have done it wouldn’t have mattered because the entity you are blaming would have caused you to fail regardless. All of your efforts were for naught in the face of that which you are blaming.

In other words, blame is a cop-out. People do it all the time when they don’t measure up or when they can’t be bothered trying in the first place. As such it is a handy marker. If you hear someone using the blame game then you can be sure that they have fallen into the above trap. And if you use it yourself then perhaps a small amount of self awareness is in order.

Everything that happens to you is your fault.

That goes both ways for the good stuff and the bad. Your life is what you have created for yourself. I know, I know – some of you are about to list all the hard luck stories that you can come up with to shoot me down. Whatever. You are defined by what you overcome not by what you are given. People think that I have a sweet life. I do have a sweet life but it is by dint of my own efforts and my own careful choices.

There are two types of people in the world – those who blame and those who take responsibility for their actions and outcomes. Feminists blame men and the patriarchy for their personal problems. Advocates of LGBTQIZ activism blame discrimination. SJWs enjoy a multitude of targets to blame but top of their list are straight white males. Blacks blame whites. On and on it goes.

Those of us on the alt right are not immune from this condition. One of the favorite targets of blame in these quarters are the Baby Boomer generation. Apparently they have manipulated the reins of power for three generations now, thereby managing in the process to make sure that they came out on top and leaving those of us who have followed severely disadvantaged.

My response to this is, so what? Bully for them. It seems to me that they made the most of their time at the coal face. Tip your hat and all that. What are you going to do? Lie down and cry like a loser? Or stand up and make the most of your own time?

Last week I was interviewed on The Dingo podcast and at one point things got fairly heated between myself and the hosts. The subject was Bernard Salt’s cheeky article where he criticized the Millennial generation who complain about not being able to afford a house but yet enjoy ‘smashed avocado’ breakfasts which can cost $25 a pop. It was a throwaway line but it caused outrage amongst the younger set.

As far as I’m concerned anytime something causes outrage then it has hit the nail on the head so to speak. As always listen not to what people say but rather watch what they do. So our poor Millennials say they cannot afford to purchase a house in the overheated Australian property market which is a result of nasty Baby Boomers like Bernard Salt fixing the rules and gaming the system. But on the other hand they go out every weekend and happily drop $50 a couple on breakfast.

As I said on the podcast, $50 a week is $2500 a year, and in ten years that amounts to $25,000. That’s a hell of a lot of money to drop on breakfast. If you manage to find three other areas in your week where you can save $50 then you have a big fat hundred grand after ten years. That sounds like a house deposit to me.

One of the hosts got fairly upset with me at this point and blurted out that twenty five grand is nothing. I was quite surprised by this but it makes perfect sense if you put yourself in the shoes of someone who is playing the blame game. Because the blame game is based on feelings and emotions whereas facts and logic have no place in that argument.

The Boomers are a handy crutch for younger generations who need a scapegoat for their own personal shortcomings. The fact is that if you are going out every weekend and dropping $50 on breakfast then you are not serious at all about supposedly saving for a home deposit. And the breakfast example belies a larger point, because it’s a good indicator that their financial frivolity is not limited to their morning dining options.

I choose not to blame the Baby Boomers just like I try not to blame anyone else, (although I sometimes slip up as we are always human). If you’re not happy with your personal circumstances then do something about it. If things aren’t working out for you then change something. If the city you live in is too expensive for your budget then pull up sticks and move. Have some gumption, have some balls, have some fire in your belly. That’s what I needed to find when I was young. You can read all about it in my first book.

Or you can play the blame game. Which will give you the good feelings in the short term but eventually guarantees you a permanent ticket to loser-ville.

my contribution to the subject: blame is a psychological defense mechanism. In any situation, your brain will seek to blame you, and then another part will seek to shift that blame. But unless you have some type of power and are looking to use it (e.g. a boss figuring out which underling deserves to be punished), it’s better to push past this mechanism and try to figure out how the problem can be solved. Now occasionally this can take the form of taking action again the blamed individual or issue, but generally not – you can still take action if it’s really warranted, but the mindset should be totally different, go from blame shifting to problem solving.

I was at a networking meeting for black managers seeking to progress their careers and the leader of the group, a consultant friend of mine, gave the following true anecdote that may, I say may, explain why first generation migrants do better than their off spring.

It referred to a real Nigerian patriarch who had moved to England and done very well for himself in business. Whenever any of his children would come to him and explain why they had come second, been sanctioned at school, only got a substandard University degree, missed out on promotion or their business venture had stalled; he would listen carefully but his answer was always the same.

And this requires you to imagine a very strong Nigerian accent with deep melodious male tonality. Ready: “IT DOESN’T MATTER!”

And when they protested this factor or that factor: “IT DOESN’T MATTER!”

There was some kick back from those present at the network meeting. But the penny eventually dropped. “IT DOESN’T MATTER!”

I’m a boomer (born 1951) in Mexifornia and worked my ass off while putting myself through college, first as a pizza delivery guy then as a car mechanic and not only got my BA in abnormal psych but then on to three teaching credential in post-grad work (two in Special Ed).

I’m now retired getting a lousy $3200/ month from STRS (in CA that’s hardly a pot to piss in) and then got fucked out of my Social Security payouts because of what’s called a “Double Dipping” law which fucked me down from over $700/month to $342/month.

I was owed that SS money. I had pumped gas and did oil changes since I lied about my age when I was 14 and throughout high school. Then did assembly line work at the old Ford plant in Pico Rivera for two years. I also was a working musician for about five years (bass and lead vocals. On the road for a while and did some studio work.). After that I paid my dues and raised a family on a mechanic’s wages while I was in grad school.

Of course, along the way I was divorced-raped by my ex in 1985 which screwed me every which way until Sunday.

Now I’m fucked. I just turned 65, have a shoulder injury (rotator cuff), creeping arthritis in my hands and hips, no assents any more, no insurance (thanks ObamaCare) and spend about $300/month on meds alone. That’s almost as much as I spend on food.

Fuck these punks who accrue $40,000/year in student debt for worthless “degrees” in gender studies and then have the temerity to bitch and complain.

I hope they all fuckin’ starve to death in the streets snorting crack and shooting black-tar heroin in cardboard boxes. There’s plenty of that shit here thanks to the Mexican cartels and no border wall.

Or just STFU and try working and actually producing something for a change.

Clearly what we need to do is to crush the Boomers, and then game the system to leave an even more messed up situation to the next generation, so as to optimize our time on the coal face.

Judging the Boomers for their self-indulgence, and lack of concern for future generations is appropriate.

NABALT. It seems to be a Boomer thing to think everything is about you. If you worked hard, and tried not to run up a debt, and tried to take care of your kids. I’m not talking to you. But if you did that, then you agree with me. You know your generation was mostly led by the wicked.

As to ‘avocado breakfast’ idiots, I’d be more sympathetic if I wasn’t familar with the term ‘yuppies’.